Is Originality Even Possible Anymore? An Essay

                Creative, groundbreaking, fresh. These words follow behind practically every single creative artist and sticks in their head like an earworm. I know I was stuck in that sinkhole. Art is made to be shared, and when you share it, you might end up thinking about how creatively groundbreaking and fresh people will find your writing, drawings, sculptures, or whatever. Why? There’s “good” art and “bad” art, and when people want “good” art, said three things almost always seem to be on the top of their list. But there’s that one word that haunts the creative types such as myself. Originality. Yes, the desire to be original and to break trends is intoxicating. Or it can be, depending on who you are. Not just to create something new and make something good, but to not make the same thing that that guy over there made. With companies and indie creators pushing out so many fantastic and really horrible products, it’s sometimes hard to make your own project that won’t make your audience say, “Hey, such-and-such obscure person you’ve never heard of already did that, you plagiarist.” It’s not easy in the Information Age to create without the nagging sense that you didn’t come up with it yourself. Or worse, that someone took your idea. Personally, I don’t think it’s that simple.

                First thing’s soonest. Total originality is impossible, and when I learned that, it wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. My comics teacher, Jerzy Drozd, is almost always the one I look to for any info on comics. And he said that if something were 100% original, it would be outside human experience, ergo impossible to understand. Everything is based on something else, ergo nothing is “truly original” in the sense the word’s chucked around. He and his friends, Mark Rudolph and Kevin Cross, ran a podcast, Art and Story, in which they debunked the public concept of artistic originality many times. Many times.

                But still I, a young, frustrated artist at the time, didn’t want to believe that what I created would never be “truly original.” But Mr. Drozd would always say that in just doing the work, you’d learn to put your own personal spin on whatever you were doing. Still though, that wasn’t good enough for me, and I was quickly growing sick of making something up and spending a ton of time on it only to find some guy I’ve never heard of who’d done it better. So I forced previously good stories to go in strange, usually uncomfortable places in their direction, trying somehow to make them new and interesting, a thing no one had ever seen before. As was and is my want, I overthought things to the extreme. It was gonna be big, it was gonna be awesome, it was gonna change the comics industry, blow the doors off of everything. I was going to be on TV and make ten movies, because what I’d written was so fantastically, extraordinarily, and undeniably original.

Of course, when it got down to it, all my comics (and other stories, I might add) ended up sounding like perfect pieces of the 90’s comic scene: pretentious, no tangible love for the projects, and just feeling like nothing but a snatch for the quickest buck. The 90’s being the decade of some of the worst American comics in American comics history, you can imagine how “good” that was. Discouraged by the results, I didn’t think I could ever really make a good, solid, original story.

It didn’t always bother me when I wasn’t totally original, and once, I did take pride in similarities between my work and a much more well-known author. The phrase, “great minds think alike,” came to mind, and the thought made me think too hard about it.

Why? Why did we think alike? We’d never met, we’d probably never had the same list of favorite books, we had thoroughly different upbringing. Why did we have the same idea? I’d developed the same idea in isolation of one of the greats, and he’d developed it in isolation of me. So how was this possible? How could we both be original on the same subject of the same thing? Was my original stance on originality misinformed, if not, just dead wrong? At the time, I couldn’t think of a logical answer that satisfied me, so I let my left-brain explain it for me.

Perhaps our imaginations were linked. Well, maybe not linked, but part of the same world, a different kind of world than the concrete one corporeal humans exist in. Maybe there’s a whole world where our subconscious states existed. The more I thought about it, I decided maybe they lived like nomads. But like strategically travelling ones, ones that never slept. And they wouldn’t live in houses made of wood or stone like humans do. There would be lands of ideas where our subconscious states could inhabit. And just like normal people, these subconscious versions of ourselves would be drawn to certain spots. Certain people would travel back and forth amongst dozens of different interests. To bring it back around, maybe this author and I, despite having never met each other, traveled the same route in this subconscious world.

When I thought about this, I could see how, yes, my previous stance on originality had to be wrong. My teacher was right; we couldn’t possibly be “truly original,” because everything is based on something else. But looking at it like this, for some reason, made me realize that my own creative take on the same thing would make it fresh. I wasn’t copying or being copied, and anything I made probably wasn’t going to become in any way groundbreaking, but the thing that made it what I wanted was the fact that I had made it myself. Ergo, originality. 

Ankh Lounging

Probably my best picture to date, here's Ankh, one of my Sanitize and Eli characters. As you can see by the numerous other books lying untouched around him, he's ignoring his work and reading a comic. Manga to be exact.

If there were going to be words that would describe our 18-19 year-old Ankh, they would be words like arrogant, persistent, irritable, and self-important. He's perfectly aware of (and has been for some time) of his father, Osiris's, way of living, and given the simmering resentment he cultured for his father over the years, nothing his father says goes with him without a chance of being completely ignored. More so than your average child. While Ankh's not a bad person, he does have some terrible traits. Laziness tends to be one, although sometimes, he's more has a more of an avoidance attitude; he ignores his work while doing something just as, similarly, or even more time-consuming that he wants to do. Bottom line: if he doesn't want to do it, he might just not do it. What makes it worse for his father is that little thing with Ankh now being a legal adult...

Like I said, Ankh has some terrible traits, and another one happens to be my favorite. Going behind authorities' back and doing exactly what they told him not to. He's done that with his father many times, despite attempts to discipline him (oh, stop worrying, his father's humane; it's not like he beats him or anything...) There've been time when Osiris tells him not to do something. If it pleases him, Ankh waits for the perfect opportunity to do it and then does it and then lies about it. Which now that I think about it isn't very smart of him 'cause Osiris is normally too smart to believe his lies. On an interesting note, this is very similar to what my character Sheldon Lamar does, except Sheldon's version is based more on curiosity and has a far more innocent streak than Ankh's. Also, Sheldon and Ankh don't get along. Ankh sees Sheldon as a raving, hideous lunatic. Sheldon sees Ankh as stuck-up and self-important. Another thing they share in common is their tendency for morbidity.

Now the topic of his adoption is something he was always very sensitive to. But as he got older, the topic went from being just a hard one to bring up to being nearly impossible to elude to without irritating him. He was present when his parents died and has had problems with that ever since. When he was young, he began having nightmares on an almost consistent basis. In time, naturally, Osiris told him he was adopted, and eventually, from there, Ankh had such a fear of loss when he was still young that he would panic when he was left alone for extended periods of time. He learned to cope with this as he aged, but he still deals with the fear of losing friends and what little family he has. Which carries us over to our next point.

Ankh has some nastiness to him, okay, yes, but he's a far cry from being thoroughly evil. Whle he does project himself as being aloof, he is very capable of making friends and keeping friendships. Bravery and loyalty (mostly to whatever friends he has) define a number of aspects of his character. Not to mention those two virtues tie into another of his good traits: cooperation. Yes, despite his antagonistic, sometimes downright insulting persona, Ankh is quite good at working with others when the situation calls for it. There have been instances in which Ankh is clearly excited to tell his co-workers about ways his abilities can play off of theirs.

For someone whose forte is not creativity, he can be very imaginative. He always had an active imagination, and Osiris fed it gladly, making the Ankh of today an intelligent and wise innovator. Speaking of intelligence and wisdom, those two attributes of Ankh are strong. Having been taught by a super genius and having a good head on his shoulders anyway, Ankh never really showed any trouble with problem-solving. This is where he has Sheldon beat. He also scores high on his actual niche: planning and positioning. Ankh has shown how easily setting up situations is for him and how to use what he get for what he needs.

If we just step back towards the subject creativity, Ankh can be a pretty surprising person when it comes to style. You'd think an arrogant person's clothing would reflect their demeanor, but Ankh prefers relatively plain clothes. His favorite color, orange, is also in high contrast to his personality. Sometimes, when Ankh wears different shades of orange, he always calls them orange while ever-specific Osiris always calls them by their actual shade. Sunset, pumpkin, red-orange, burnt orange, etc., and Ankh points out how fashion designer-ish and sometimes effeminate it makes them look. Another more noticeable trait of Ankh's is his application of eyeliner. It's never really specified whether or not he's doing that to resemble his father, to be rebellious somehow, or just 'cause he wants to. However, it's probably not to look like his father. Osiris has black lines trailing down alongside his nose. Ankh didn't mimic that look at all.

But his best trait of all, as corny as this sounds, is his honest love for his father. Yes, he's a total jerk to him usually, yes, he openly acts rudely in ways that disrespect and humiliate him, but when his father is in trouble or missing without a reason, all that falls away, and a person can see that Ankh does honestly care about his father. Sometimes, very rarely but sometimes, his affection for his father can be seen in little snippets, especially when Ankh needs comfort.

I hope you guys found that interesting enough. Stay tuned for more stuff.

This picture is also on deviantART.
Ankh Lounging
GenreChowderStudios' deviantART homepage

Later.

NaNoWriMo Winner - Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days

After 30 long days and nights, I finally did it. I finally beat my 75,000 word challenge and went over by 2,007 words. It's been very long, very hard, but extremely worth it, I've gotta say. Now, I'm a writing nut, and of course I didn't just stop after I verified my win. I'm still working on Who's Taken Me? from my trilogy, but I did the whole second part and a bit of the third part. With this under my belt, I hope I can finish this book soon, so I can start to tie and cut the knots of the entire trilogy. Then it can be ready for publishing.

One odd thing I realized is I really really REALLY need to revise the first book. It's not a bad read at all, but I have so many other things to add, remove most definitely, and switch up. It's going to be serious business that gonna take up a great deal of my time, not to mention other projects I have, my art, and that doggone manga, Axolotl... But I hope to be able to keep it all up, keep it together, and keep sharing this stuff with you guys.

It's not really that obvious by the title or anything, but I'll be posting excerpts from my third novel's first draft over the next few days. Bear with me if some parts don't make sense. After all, this does happen to be a first draft and taken completely out of context to boot. Without further ado, here's the excerpt that's on my NaNoWriMo profile.

***

Secrets. Over the past few days, I’d acquired such amazing secrets, both accidental and purposeful. I’d shared one of my own. With someone I thought I’d never trust: a doctor. I grinned wider like Osiris. I liked secrets. I liked hearing them as much as I liked finding someone to share them with. But these were special secrets that I heard in the dispensary. Very special secrets. Precious secrets. War secrets, I thought to myself. I got a shiver down my spine, it sounded so exciting. I, Specialist Private Sheldon Quincy Lamar, had war secrets that the General of the Army himself believed I could handle and veil as needed. All of a sudden, all the doubts and qualms I had about my military service dropped about a thousand miles or 17,600 double time military paces. No matter what, I would follow Osiris’s orders to the letter, to my limits, and to the grave. I would prove myself to him, my would-be father, that I was worth it. That I was worth the risk he took to include me in this war secret. I told myself that snowy night that one day or one night, whatever, I would join his side and protect what he swore to protect. Even his Celestialite secret.

***

Hope you enjoyed it. I don't know for sure how many other excerpts I'll be uploading, but I think if you enjoyed this, you'll enjoy the others *nods vigorously*. Some of them are funny, some of them sad, dramatic, you name it, Sheldon's going to fling it at you.

Just be aware, to all you younger viewers out there, there is some mature content in Sanitize. It's mostly language and violence, but keep in mind, immature Sheldon and his main group of acquaintances in this book are mostly teens and young adults in the army, so very crude humor and reference ensues. And this instance of reference he made at some point. Plus, there's that PG-13 type of thing with battle sequences and frightening images, that kind of thing. But you know, if you're under 16, I wouldn't read it without that thar parental consent. Who's Taken Me? is considerably darker, more violent, and more adult than the last two books, although the second book as it is now contends well with the this one. You'll thank me later. Or not, as the case may be.

Later.

Prologue

I uploaded the first part of my Sanitize: Vol. 1: Am I Real? prologue to deviantART. Here's the link. http://fav.me/d2ozh89

I know I'm gonna upload the whole prologue to deviantART, but after that I don't know what I should do. What do you think? Should I upload the first few chapters, the first part, the whole darn thing??? Or should I just upload a couple thousand words every whatever? I'm gonna make a poll about this so you can tell me, or you can leave a comment if it pleases thee.

Later.

The Only Way to Go Now!

Well, the ABNA contest kicked me out, but my resolve remains strong! Now I'm convinced self-publishing is the only way to go with "Sanitize," so I'm gonna do a little more text work. Total control, man. Plus, I've decided on how I'm gonna do the illustrations for the chapters. You know, something like "Chapter Whatever Number" and there'll be a pic somewhere suggesting what the chapter's about. I haven't figured out if I'm doing the illustrations in B&W or color, but they'll probably be in B&W. I can't wait to work on the cover!

I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to work on my website! Noes...

Later.